STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Vice President Joseph Biden attended a commemorative service Tuesday morning at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa.

"Today we stand on this hallowed ground, a place made sacred by the heroism and sacrifice of the passengers and the crew of Flight 93. And it's as if the flowers, as I walked here, as if the flowers were giving testament to how sacred this ground is," he said.

A wedding this weekend in Johnstown, Pa., brought us the unplanned opportunity to visit the crash site. It didn't occur to me right away, but I realized that Staten Islander John Talignani of New Dorp was on the plane. His nephew, Steven Elwell, was a reporter for the Advance teen section at the time.

The memorial is off Route 30. The two lane road loops through a countryside of farms on rolling hills. The sky was piled with rows of clouds. Blue sky patches sparkled in between.

Along with a couple of tour buses and dozens of private cars, were motorcyclists coming and going. More than 200,000 people are expected to visit this year.

Flight 93 was a Boeing 757 that left Newark airport at 8:42 on the morning of September 11, 2001 on its way to San Francisco. Four minutes later, the first plane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, followed by the second plane into the South Tower at 9:03.

Soon after, probably about 9:28, Flight 93 was taken over by hijackers who continued on a western path over Ohio before swinging around to a southeasterly direction.

At 9:37, a plane, Fight 77, was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Through phone calls to their families, passengers on Flight 93 became aware that their flight was part of the horrific events unfolding. Evidence from phone conversations and the cockpit voice recorder, revealed that the passengers decided to try to retake the plane from the hijackers.

At 10:03, the plane, hurtling at 563 miles per hour crashed upside down in a field in rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

Everyone on the plane -- 33 passengers, seven crew and four hijackers -- were killed, but no one else on the ground was.

The crash site is 18 minutes away from Washington, D.C. The passengers are hailed as heroes because their struggle thwarted the terrorists' plan to hit another target there.

A gap in a stand of hemlocks and a boulder in the field mark the place where the plane went down. A marble wall with 40 slabs memorializes the passengers and crew.

Talignani was a World War II Army veteran and a retired bartender who served the famous and unknowns at Manhattan's Palm restaurants. He was on the way to the funeral of his stepson who died in a car accident while honeymooning in California.

He is described as a "down-to-earth" family man who was central to his stepsons' lives. His nephew Steven's account of that day when he learned about his uncle's death reflects that Talignani's warmth was felt through the extended family. As a senior in high school, Elwell wrote: "He has never missed an article of mine and I know that he's not missing this one either."

The memorial is a complex arrangement of private and public partnerships from the acquisition of the land to the funding. The entire national campaign has raised $27 million, with $5 million to go. That will be half of the $64 million needed to pay for the memorial, with the rest government-funded.

Design issues have also dogged its completion, but dedicated last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, much of the plan has come to fruition with the wall, a slate walk bordering the crash site, signage and benches.

Volunteers and National Park Service workers have planted 25 of the
planned 40 groves of native species such as white pine, quaking aspen
and American chestnut trees. Future plans call for the remaining 15 groves of trees to be planted and a "tower of voices" with 40 wind chimes to be built. A visitor center is also planned.

The peaceful countryside provides a stark contrast to the violence of the events that day and a very different place from Downtown Manhattan to contemplate the loss of life and the selfless actions of those that were killed.